[hampton3188]

hi

i wanted to ask - i am on 60mg my doctor told me to do 60mg one day and then 30mg then next day for a while and then do 30mg for a couple of days and then go off- this seems too fast? can i break open the capsules?
i need help- tried to do this a few times but the side effects were too much i couldnt handle it so went back on. this time i really need to get off these drugs...

[cookie]

Dear Hampton:
From what I´ve read on this site, the -every other day- approach is not that good, because of cymbalta´s life in the body. From real stories on this site, I´ve learned that it is better to take the same dosage everyday for a period, that it is to be switching dosages between days.

I am not a doctor, just a "patient" who has suffered from severe depression and is trying to wean off of cymbalta. But it seems, you are going too fast. Coming down from 60mg all the way to 30mg seems to me a huge drop.

I took 60mg for 5 years, then I dropped to 52mg for a week, then 45mg for another week, then 37,5mg for another week and I am planning to drop to 30mg next week. (I´ve been doing 7mg drops each time) and still I´ve experienced mild withdrawal symptoms. So I can´t imagine what would have been to drop straight from 60 to 30mg.

I didn´t know one could open the capsules until I found this site. The good thing is that you can go as fast or as slow as you can, by making your own dosage.

This chart will be useful. It shows the number of beads equivalent to the different number of miligrams. So you can plan your drops.
60mg=540 beads
30mg=270beads
15mg=135beads
10mg=90beads
5mg=45 beads
1mg= 9 beads

You have to be careful because this equivalence could change depending on the manufacturer that produced the pill.
However it has been so useful to me and it matched with the bead count in my capsule.

So what you have to decide now, is how many miligrams do you want to drop each time, How long will you stay in each dosage and in how many weeks/months you´ll be down to zero mg.

Hope this helped
Cookie

[Yvonne]

cookie, on 31 May 2010 - 03:05 PM, said:

Dear Hampton:
From what I´ve read on this site, the -every other day- approach is not that good, because of cymbalta´s life in the body. From real stories on this site, I´ve learned that it is better to take the same dosage everyday for a period, that it is to be switching dosages between days.

I am not a doctor, just a "patient" who has suffered from severe depression and is trying to wean off of cymbalta. But it seems, you are going too fast. Coming down from 60mg all the way to 30mg seems to me a huge drop.

I took 60mg for 5 years, then I dropped to 52mg for a week, then 45mg for another week, then 37,5mg for another week and I am planning to drop to 30mg next week. (I´ve been doing 7mg drops each time) and still I´ve experienced mild withdrawal symptoms. So I can´t imagine what would have been to drop straight from 60 to 30mg.

I didn´t know one could open the capsules until I found this site. The good thing is that you can go as fast or as slow as you can, by making your own dosage.

This chart will be useful. It shows the number of beads equivalent to the different number of miligrams. So you can plan your drops.
60mg=540 beads
30mg=270beads
15mg=135beads
10mg=90beads
5mg=45 beads
1mg= 9 beads

You have to be careful because this equivalence could change depending on the manufacturer that produced the pill.
However it has been so useful to me and it matched with the bead count in my capsule.

So what you have to decide now, is how many miligrams do you want to drop each time, How long will you stay in each dosage and in how many weeks/months you´ll be down to zero mg.

Hope this helped
Cookie

[Yvonne]

I was on 90mg Cymbalta for 4 months - I felt that the product was enhancing my brain fog, causing extreme vertigo to the extent that I could no longer drive my car and I was constantly nauseous. I was using Gabapentin (900mg x 3 times daily) and Indometacin 100mg x 3 times daily. I was no longer in charge of my faculties. Being the meticulous perfectionist I am, I could no longer take this. Yes, my pain was minimalized - but who was I???? A month ago I decided to leave all the medication as I was feeling better - so I just went cold turkey and left it all. I had 2 awesome pain free weeks, I played ten pin bowling, exercised on the treadmill, weeded the garden and even walked 1 km without having to sit down. I was sure that I must have been incorrectly diagnosed.

Until 3 weeks ago when I woke up with pain as severe as it had been previously and even worse, I was breathless and vomiting. I had the indometacin and hoped the pain would go away. In the meantime, I had stopped using Omeprazole as well (which protects your stomach lining against all the drugs)- this caused intense burning in my stomach and extreme reflux. I went to see my GP who was shocked that I had gone cold turkey - I was having to face that I was NOT incorrectly diagnosed, I do have FMS and that I will need to find a way to come to terms with it. I am back on the Gabapentin and Indometacin and Omeprazole - but it's been almost a month and I am still so breathless and very, very tired.

Will the breathlessness ease up?? I have had lung and heart function tests done last week and my GP insists that these are withdrawal symptoms. I never want to use Cymbalta again. If anybody else has experienced this please could you let me know what helped, if anything - and what your doctor replaced this drug with.

[MaureenV]

Yvonne, on 31 May 2010 - 05:57 PM, said:

I was on 90mg Cymbalta for 4 months - I felt that the product was enhancing my brain fog, causing extreme vertigo to the extent that I could no longer drive my car and I was constantly nauseous. I was using Gabapentin (900mg x 3 times daily) and Indometacin 100mg x 3 times daily. I was no longer in charge of my faculties. Being the meticulous perfectionist I am, I could no longer take this. Yes, my pain was minimalized - but who was I???? A month ago I decided to leave all the medication as I was feeling better - so I just went cold turkey and left it all. I had 2 awesome pain free weeks, I played ten pin bowling, exercised on the treadmill, weeded the garden and even walked 1 km without having to sit down. I was sure that I must have been incorrectly diagnosed.

Until 3 weeks ago when I woke up with pain as severe as it had been previously and even worse, I was breathless and vomiting. I had the indometacin and hoped the pain would go away. In the meantime, I had stopped using Omeprazole as well (which protects your stomach lining against all the drugs)- this caused intense burning in my stomach and extreme reflux. I went to see my GP who was shocked that I had gone cold turkey - I was having to face that I was NOT incorrectly diagnosed, I do have FMS and that I will need to find a way to come to terms with it. I am back on the Gabapentin and Indometacin and Omeprazole - but it's been almost a month and I am still so breathless and very, very tired.

Will the breathlessness ease up?? I have had lung and heart function tests done last week and my GP insists that these are withdrawal symptoms. I never want to use Cymbalta again. If anybody else has experienced this please could you let me know what helped, if anything - and what your doctor replaced this drug with.

Hi Yvonne,

sorry, can't help you too much, but I was certainly breathless during withdrawal.

I'm afraid no one can really tell you how long the symptoms will last. They may of course be being aggravated by your underlying condition. People who drop Cymbalta cold turkey often experience bad symptoms for a month or so. There also seems to be a difference between weaning and cold turkey and that's that cold turkey can sometimes cause recurrence of withdrawal symptoms.

I know it doesn't seem like there's much good news, but at least your doctor recognizes them as withdrawal symptoms. Some doctors don't accept that they occur at this level and put them down to underlying symptoms which were HELPED by Cymbalta.



regards, Maureen.

[cookie]

ynot, on 31 May 2010 - 08:35 PM, said:

I did this recently and this is what worked well for me: 1 week of 60/30, the next week was 30/30, then the following week was 30/0, on the 4th week...-0-. not bad at all.

Dear ynot:
How many days have you been without cymbalta???? cero mg. How have you felt???? since i´ve read on this site that bad symptoms start to appear after 1 week? how are you?

[hampton3188]

cookie, on 05 June 2010 - 06:55 PM, said:

Dear ynot:
How many days have you been without cymbalta???? cero mg. How have you felt???? since i´ve read on this site that bad symptoms start to appear after 1 week? how are you?

hi everyone i wanted to ask you a question- i have gone from 60- 30 - the first week was pretty bad but the second week has been even worst- i am getting temperatures and feeling completely out of it i cant concentrate- how long will this last?

[Junior]

hampton3188, on 08 June 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

hi everyone i wanted to ask you a question- i have gone from 60- 30 - the first week was pretty bad but the second week has been even worst- i am getting temperatures and feeling completely out of it i cant concentrate- how long will this last?

Hi Hampton (from p/c 3201 lol)

What you are feeling is a classic sign of reducing the dose too quickly. No one can tell you how long your symptoms will last as it differs for everyone but honestly, the best way to combat this, is to go back on a higher dose of Cymbalta and stabilise before doing another reduction. After two weeks your body will be getting used to less Cymbalta so you could try 50mg.

In general, it is best to reduce by 10% and wait 3-6 weeks before reducing again.

Good luck
Junior

[cookie]

hampton3188, on 08 June 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

hi everyone i wanted to ask you a question- i have gone from 60- 30 - the first week was pretty bad but the second week has been even worst- i am getting temperatures and feeling completely out of it i cant concentrate- how long will this last?

Dear hamptom:
It differs from person to person.
It took me 6 weeks to go from 60mg to 25mg by making very small drops (7mg at the beginning and then 2,5mg drops).
I rather go real slowly. For me the withdrawal symptoms have not been that bad